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Information on Hard Landings
AIR5938

<p>This document provides information on the current practices used by commercial and military operators in regards to hard landings (or overload events designated as hard landings). Since detailed information on inspections would be aircraft specific, this AIR provides only a general framework. Detailed information and procedures are available in the maintenance manuals for specific aircraft.</p> <p>Because hard landings potentially affect the entire aircraft, guidelines are listed here for non-landing gear areas. But, the primary focus of the document is the landing gear and related systems. The document may be considered to be applicable to all types of aircraft.</p> <p>This document does NOT provide recommended practices for hard landing inspections, nor does it provide recommendations on the disposition of damaged equipment. Refer to ARP 4915 and ARP 5600. Also, this document does not necessarily address overloads from circumstances other than landings, such as from tow vehicles, runway bumps, traversing cables, etc.</p>

Rationale: The industry requested that general reference information on hard landings be compiled including detection methods, inspection procedures, and historical incidence data.
Due to the complexities associated with landing an aircraft, hard landing do occur which can cause damage the landing gear that is visual in nature or detected by Non Destructive Inspection (NDI), and in some cases may not be detectable. If an aircraft landing gear becomes damaged in a critical area, that landing gear will most likely have reduced load bearing capability that can lead to unforeseen catastrophic failure in the future. This Aerospace Information Report needs to be updated to include the latest best industry practices for inspecting landing Gear that has been subjected to a hard landing. This would include revising:
• The logic path for detection of hard landings.
• The latest methods of inspection techniques.
• Evaluate guidance for adding landing gear systems that are made for carbon fiber composites.
• Methods of analysis for hard landing events
• Revise-correct terminology in document for ease of understanding